Exposures of quackery : being a series of articles upon, and analysis of, various patent medicines / by the editor of "Health News."

Date:
[1897?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Exposures of quackery : being a series of articles upon, and analysis of, various patent medicines / by the editor of "Health News.". Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    thousands of cases of diseases which no other medicine could cure^ Of course the reference to an Act of Parliament is another piece of bluff, and so artfully worded as to convey to the class of people who read through every word of the glibberish jargon in patent medicine directions as solemnly as if they were com- mitting to memory some choice piece of Scripture, that the Act of Parliament was passed with special reference to the Fever Cure. The dose of Fever Curer is put down as a wine- glassful at pretty frequent intervals. Seeing that wine-glasses differ so much in size, it is a good thing that there is so little laudanum contained in the bottle of eight ounces, otherwise death by misadventure, as juries are apt to bring in the verdict (instead of manslaughter, the correct term), in cases of fatal poisoning through taking over doses of narcotic quack medicines, would result. As it is, reckoning a properly graduated wine-glass at one-and-a-half ounces, the patient has the gratification of getting through his bottle in about five doses. With regard to the com- mercial value of the bottleful, we are not disposed in this hot weather to weary either ourselves or our readers by working out a sum in fractions, and we will therefore limit ourselves to the statement that the whole of the drugs in an eight-ounce bottle of this stuff would be dear at a penny. But, though it is a highly objectional proceeding on the part of patent medicine manufacturers, through